Agriculture's Ethical Horizon

What are the goals of agricultural science? What should the goals of agricultural science be? How do and how should the practitioners of agriculture address complex ethical questions? These questions are explored in this monumental book so that those in agriculture will begin an open dialoge on the ethics of agriculture. Discussion of foundational values, of why we practice agriculture as we do, should become a central, rather than peripheral, part of agricultural practice and education. If agricultural scientists do not venture forth to understand and shape the ethical base of the future, it will be imposed by others. Largely autobiographical, this book covers topics such as scientific truth and myth, what agricultural research should be done, an introduction to ethics, moral confidence in agriculture, the relevance of ethics to agriculture, sustainability, and biotechnology.

AudienceAnyone engaged in agriculture including students, researchers, and professionals in environmental studies, horticulture, plant science, and soil science. Those involved in associated regional and county offices, farmers and ranchers, agricultural chemical companies, and all those employed by other phases of the agricultural industry.

Reviews

"This book takes on the largest scientific and ethical challenge of our past and present and does so in an engaging manner." - Wes Jackson, President, The Land Institute "Agriculture's Ethical Horizon is both a competent review of value conflicts in agriculture and a striking tale of the intellectual, even spiritual, transformation of an agriculturalist who was a leader in one agriculture's most dramatic technical revolutions, the development of chemical weed control. Everyone will find something to criticize. No alert reader will be left unaffected and most will have responses which, in their sense of being intellectually cool, they will have to admit are profoundly emotional--one way or the other. I predict that whole conferences will be based on this book. Historians of environmental sciences should pay particular attention." - Stanislaus J. Dundon, California State University, Sacramento